Inspiring meeting!

It's not often that you get to put the words inspiring and  meeting together, but today is that day.  I met with 11 highly dedicated and motivated ESL teachers this morning for the first Team Leader meeting of our MinneTESOL Elementary Interest Group.  We are ready to roll our sleeves up and focus on advocacy for our profession and our students, professional development to ensure knowledge of best practices, and new technology resources to reach out to members and make information easily accessible.  This group is SO important - as are other grass-roots groups like it.  After 10 years of NCLB what do we have to show for it?  Anxious teachers and students, millions of dollars spent on testing annually, an abusive evaluation system designed to "catch" teachers being unsuccessful rather than help them improve AND most importantly - not much academic progress to show for it - ESPECIALLY for ELLs.  So - if you have ideas on how to advocate for the ESL profession and students - please share!